The barbed steel garrote struck the skin of Lu Chen’s throat with the force of a sprung heavy steel crossbow.
SKRRR-CHING!
A shower of orange friction sparks erupted against the dark bronze column of his neck.
The serrated steel teeth didn’t bite through flesh.
They didn’t draw a single bead of blood.
Instead, the cold-drawn wire met the iron-hard sound thickness of the Twelve-Layer Iron Bell Body.
A high-hum ringing chime—CLANG!—rippled across Lu Chen’s collarbone.
The counter-blast wave traveled directly up the tensioned wire like a strike of lightning.
